Thursday, October 31, 2013

Nixon Lowers Flags

“Gov. Jay Nixon today ordered that the U.S. and Missouri flags at state buildings in all 114 counties and the City of St. Louis be flown at half-staff on Monday, Nov. 4, to honor longtime Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton, who passed away on Oct. 28…”

Burial Details

Visitation for Congressman Ike Skelton will be from 2pm to 8pm this Sunday in his hometown of Lexington, at Wentworth Military Academy’s Grondyke Hall. Funeral will be Monday at 2 p.m. at Wentworth’s Wikoff Hall, followed by burial at Lexington’s Machpelah Cemetery.

And

Scott Charton gives a long interview with Missourinet about Ike’s legacy.  Hear it here.

MO Hospital Association Sends Questionnaire

The Missouri Hospital, looking ahead to the next session, is said to be circulating a survey among legislators asking them where they stand on key issues – including Medicaid expansion.  That’s their number one priority.  Many fear that without Medicaid expansion hospitals, especially rural hospitals, will face a devastating financial crush when DSH payments disappear.

Democrats have grumbled that they should be the overwhelming recipients of the MHA dollars since Missouri’s failure to expand Medicaid rests entirely on the Republican majority legislature.  And perhaps this questionnaire is an attempt to put legislators on the record for that issue which has never come to a vote.

HealthPAC, MHA’s PAC, showed receipts last quarter of $293K and has $350K on-hand.

Obama Hits Lows in the Polls

Looking toward next year, Democrats have to be worried that the low approval numbers for President Barack Obama will bring a difficult political environment.  A new NBC/WSJ commissioned poll puts Obama’s numbers at a new low… 42% approval rating.  See the poll here.

GOP Low Also

If there is cause for optimism for Democrats, it’s that the Republican Party’s approval ratings are also at historic lows.  That same poll shows that only 22% have a positive view of the GOP.  The Dems aren’t exactly popular, but they do have a head and shoulder on Republicans, coming in at 37%.

Pousosa Kicks Off

I missed Tony Poupsosa’s kick-off the other day.  Maybe you did too.  Oddly, he decided to make the announcement that he was running for St. Louis County Executive in the middle of the Cardinals’ World Series run.

Here’s the news item from KSDK.

Pousosa’s twitter feed of the event gives thanks to supporters Paul Curtman, John Brunner, Jim Lembke, and Bill Federer.  Not exactly Republicans who will help create cross-over support.

I’ll be truly surprised if Republicans let Pousosa be their nominee in the largest county in the state with the Democratic incumbent limping and fighting off a challenge. If so, it’s a milestone surrender, and foreshadows a sliding retreat in those St. Louis County legislative seats for the coming decade.

Schupp, Lavender Use Head Start

And in fact in St Louis County the latest fundraising quarter, Republicans have missed the starting gun in their most vulnerable seats.  In both Senate 24 and House 90, the Democratic candidates are off and running while the GOP’s candidate is MIA.

In Senate 24, Rep. Jill Schupp raised $81,373, and has $177K on-hand.  In House 90, Deb Lavender raised $39,676 and has most of that ($38K) on-hand. 

In both of these districts there should be plenty of qualified Republican candidates, but for whatever reason, no one has come forward yet.

Give $$ or Keep Getting Fundraising Calls… You Choose

The Missouri Republican Party’s initative to build its grassroots contributions is something called the Mighty MO Victory Crew.  They’re trying to sign up 1,000 members at $8.25/month.  See it here.

Benefits include:

Crew Members Do Not Receive Fundraising Letters from the Missouri Republican Party

Crew Member Do Not Receive Fundraising Phone Calls from the Missouri Republican Party

Quarterly Conference Calls with Chairman Martin and a Special Guest

Email Updates

Special Crew Member Event at Statewide Lincoln Days in February 2014

Automatic Monthly Donation to your Credit/Debit Card

Bits

Jason Hancock looks at the battle ahead for the transportation tax.  Read it here.

Brad Ketcher’s initiative petition to put students on the boards of public universities was approved for circulation.  See it here.

And another interesting bit from the October quarter, Rep. Jeremy LaFaver raised $15,385.  That’s pretty strong for a House member in the minority.  Especially though when you consider it was the quarter in which he had his “carrying” incident.

Lobbyist Registrations

From the Pelopidas website:

Zachary Brunnert, Doyle Childers, Franc Flotron, Kent Gaines, Janet Hirshman, David McCracken, Richard McIntosh, Earl Pabst, Larry Rohrbach, Dan Schuette, and Bill Stouffer deleted Stack Excavating LLC.

Zachary Brunnert, and Richard McIntosh deleted Wyse Technology Inc.

$5K+Contributions

Committee for Research Treatments and Cures - $25,000 from Barnett Helzberg Jr. Rev Trust.

Missourians for Koster - $25,000 from Gregory Wendt.

Committee for Research Treatments and Cures - $17,000 from James B Nutter & Company.

Friends of Tom Schweich - $20,000 from Jesse Bodine.

Birthdays

Happy birthday to former Rep. Paul Quinn (70).